Hitman: Paris /review
Welcome back, 47
Narrative was never Hitman’s strongest suit, and fans of the series were fine with that, since they always preferred their assassination stories to be told through gameplay, rather than through cutscenes. And who can blame them, when it’s so much easier to enjoy your own stories of stealthy improvisation, perfect executions and botched plans more than shallow narrative about bald suave assassin and his deranged targets? But, for some reason, series’ creators IO Interactive forgot that when they decided to make their fifth and most disappointing Hitman game so far — 2012’s Hitman: Absolution.
To be clear, Absolution wasn’t a bad game, it just was’t a very good Hitman game. Instead of giving players what they actually wanted (and they wanted a sequel to Blood Money), IO gave them a game heavily focused on story, chock-full of cutscenes, annoying characters and small linear levels that didn’t really offer them much of an opportunity to do what Agent 47 does best — improvise. Or, in case of less skilled players, improvise clumsily, before ending missions with massive shootouts and total bloodshed.
However, if the first episode of the new Hitman is any indication, it seems IO have finally come back to their senses.
First of all, yes, the new Hitman is an episodic game, and no, that’s not a bad thing. After all, the episodic model suits Agent 47, since he’s always been a globetrotting assassin following his assignments, and not just a guy who goes on a killing spree in a couple of interconnected locations.
What’s more, new Hitman wants you to forget all of the Absolution’s sins and remember the good times you had with Blood Money. Remember those giant sandbox levels, it asks? And all those opportunities to kill your target? Of course you do, and even if you don’t, it will remind you of that whenever it can.
The game begins with two tutorial levels, which, while pretty small, offer you lots of opportunities to show off your skills, while simultaneously easing new players into the world of Hitman. Let’s take, for example, the very first training mission, where you have to assassinate an art thief at a party on his yacht. Want to kill him with a point-blank shot, and then run for your life? You’re free to do it. Want to disguise yourself as a member of his crew and poison his drink? Go for it. Want to stage an accident where a lifeboat falls on his head? You can do that too. And that’s just the appetizer — in the next tutorial mission, and especially in the game’s first ‘real’ mission, you’ll have even more opportunities to kill your targets, often in much more interesting and creative ways.
If you’re thinking how all that sounds exactly like Blood Money, you’re not wrong — this game is basically Blood Money 2.0, with few new bits and pieces and with missions set on levels seemingly bigger than anything we’ve seen in previous Hitman games.
When it comes to systems and mechanics that weren’t in Blood Money, you’ll notice couple of things from Absolution (like lockers and crates in which you can hide unconscious or dead bodies), as well as a thing or two that weren’t in any of the previous games (if you leave your weapon laying on the ground and NPCs see it, they will call guards, who will then take it to their outpost). On the other hand, if the first level of the game is anything to go by, it seems that levels in the new Hitman are going to be simply huge — here we have a playground set in Paris during a fashion show, consisting of giant mansion with four totally distinct floors, couple of parking lots, gardens and restaurants. And each of those areas is bustling with security guards, models and shady businessmen waiting for you to strangle them and take their clothes.
While we’re at disguises, it’s worth mentioning that Hitman won’t annoy you with them like Absolution did — if you disguise yourself as, let’s say, security guard, you’ll still be able to walk past other security guards without them finding you suspicious. Of course, some of them will be able to see through your disguise, but those will be marked with a simple white dot above their head and you’ll usually be able to avoid them if you’re careful while strolling around and following your targets.
Those targets, just as other NPCs, will react naturally to some kinds of weird behaviour, like unnecessary crouching or vaulting over fences, but they won’t mind if you follow them around like the world’s biggest creep. And while you could argue that the game would be better if it had more realistic AI which would react to your stalking, it’s actually easy to forgive the game for acknowledging that it’s just a game. Especially since its systems enable you to play it like you always played Hitman — as a stealthy puzzle game, where you can explore levels at your own pace while looking for a perfect opportunity to assassinate your target. Or, better yet, make the assassination look like an accident.
Similar kind of “gaminess” is also noticeable in some other aspects of the game, of which the Opportunities system is the most notable. Basically, it enables you to find and then track different ways to kill your target in unique ways — for example, if you hear two engineers talking about a faulty ejector seat in a plane that your target is going to use for his escape, the game will let you track all the steps required to make sure he actually sits in and activates that ejector seat. And those engineers won’t start talking about it unless you come near them and trigger their conversation — in other words, Opportunities will always be waiting for you, thus giving you a chance to kill your target in unique ways each time you decide to try your luck at them.
Luckily, if you find the way the game tracks Opportunities too handhold-y, you can minimise their presence in the HUD, as well as turn their tracking off completely. You’ll also be able to turn off remnants of Absolution’s Instinct mode, which enables you to see your target and other enemy NPCs through the walls. I would even recommend doing so, since the game is perfectly playable without it, as it offers you regular map and a minimap, which you can also turn off, if you want bigger challenge.
Besides story missions set on two tutorial levels and in one full-sized traditional Hitman sandbox, the game offers you handful of additional modes: Escalation missions, Elusive targets and one of the better aspects of Absolution — Contracts.
In Escalation missions, you’ll play same mission five times, each time with additional objectives (they’ll escalate from ‘kill a guy’ to ‘kill a guy and his entourage, hide their bodies in less than 90 seconds, and hack heavily guarded laptop’), while Elusive targets will offer you only one shot at your target, before they’re gone forever. As for Contracts, they are better than ever before, thanks to the huge Parisian level and seemingly countless ways to kill your targets.
For the uninitiated, Contracts enable players to tag any NPC on the map, making them the target that other players need to kill with certain type of weapon (of your choosing), while wearing a certain disguise (which you also choose). Naturally, before creating a contract and uploading it to game’s servers, you’ll have to finish it yourself with that exact type of weapon and disguise, just so the wannabe assassins can see that it is indeed possible to kill a model on catwalk with melee weapon… while wearing the Vampire Magician outfit. And all that without being seen, of course.
Sadly, while the story missions are available offline, each of those additional modes, as well as some bonuses in story missions, are only available while you’re connected to Square’s servers. That wouldn’t be a problem — at least not a big one — if some of those modes and bonuses had their offline counterparts. But, the way it is now, you’ll have to deal with few off-putting design decisions, like the fact that some of the additional weapons or insertion points that you unlock while doing challenges won’t be available offline, or the fact that the game will kick you out to main menu if there are any problems with connection — be it on your, or on Square’s end.
(For the record, I got disconnected from the servers only once during the launch day. From there on, it was smooth sailing, but that doesn’t mean other people aren’t having issues that Square and IO should fix as soon as possible.)
Even though we only got a glimpse at new Hitman with this episode, it’s more than good enough to recommend — especially to fans of Blood Money. It offers almost everything we enjoyed in previous games, while avoiding the stuff that we didn’t. And it’s got great sandbox levels bigger than ever before, brimming with ways to dispose of our targets, just as it has enough confidence to to let us improvise and find our own way to them.
Now let’s just hope IO manages to make each of the remaining episodes as big and as good as this one, and we could be looking at a best Hitman yet.
Hitman: Paris (Episode 1)| official site | developer: IO Interactive | publisher: Square Enix | type of game: assassination simulator where you steal people’s clothes| platforms: PlayStation 4 (played), PC, Xbox One | spent couple of hours finishing main story missions; spent many more hours playing additional Contracts and Escalation missions
